An insight into the world of films from a girl obsessed with jellyfish

Day 28 – The Next Three Days

This isn’t what I originally planned as Day 28, but that film backfired. So I went with this one instead.

The Next Three Days. After his wife is found guilty of murder, a man is determined to break her out of jail, no matter what the cost.

I had never heard of this film before today. Even if I had, a few months ago I would have not wanted to watch it. This is what I call a man’s film: guns, action, all that stuff. It’s not the biggest man’s film I’ve seen, but it is enough for me to know I would not have given it the time of day a few months ago.

In the end? It was okay. Not amazing, not good, just okay. It was a little bit slow and kind of boring. And the only decent ‘action’ part of the movie was completely unnecessary and annoyed me more than anything. If you’ve seen the movie, then it’s the part where she shoves herself out of the car. I mean, come on? Was that really something that needed to go into the film? Yes, it was badass. But ultimately a little bit pointless. At least to me, anyway.

The actors were alright. Russell Crowe is pretty good at acting. Not my favourite, but pretty good. He played his part well. Didn’t stun me with his amazingness, but you know. He performed to a decent standard. The wife as well, who’s name evades me currently, was okay too. She didn’t really have much to do for the most part of the film, but she was pretty much okay. A little psychotic, what with the numerous attempts to kill herself, but you know. She was alright.

The way the film presented itself was a little bit blah. I’ve seen better films very similar to this one. You know the story: a man works out how to break someone out of jail. It’s been done before. Mainly in a programme called ‘Prison Break’. Now that one is clever. And after watching films like Se7en and The Prestige, the ‘cleverness’ of this film didn’t wow me. So I was left a little deflated, and willing the 2 hours and 15mins to end. It did drag. Quite a bit.

If you enjoy action movies that are less action and more logic, this is the film for you. But I’ve come to discover I need a little bit more than just watching a man work it all out. I need it to grab me, shock me, inspire me. This film lacked all three for me, and so I guess I didn’t really like it all that much.